Thetownend.com

Video: http://yfrog.com/nq77vz

What is going on?! Di Canio has to go!

See matchday thread buddy. And have to disagree, Paolo must stay, at least a few more games are required before we can measure his managerial worth. I still believe!

How about we obtain all the facts first?

Any point in keeping this thread open?

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Somebody pat the CG DJ on the back for playing "nah nah nah nah nah nah nah I wanna start a fight", just after Karoooosh twatted somebody on the half time whistle.

It looks like Di Canio threw a punch to me, Around 16-17 seconds in.

Clarke was a waste of space tonight. Lazy, lethargic and generally uninterested unless the ball was at his feet or put somewhere close. His effort in the first half was questionable and non-existant in the second.

On another day he may well have hit the net once, maybe twice. Shit luck, good goal keeping, whatever. He didn't net tonight.

He might not intend it, but his demeanour when things don't go his way makes him look like he thinks he's too good for us and that he's made a serious mistake by joining us. He seems isolated, not a genuine or willing part of the front line, let alone the team as a whole.

If I was the STFC fittness coach and he was moaning at me, I'd have had a pop at the lazy cunt during the walk off the pitch at the end as well.

A big chunk of humble pie will be on his breakfast menu tomorrow. If he wants to continue playing for Di Canio in SN1 he'll do well to drop the fucking attitude, shut the fuck up and start working his nuts off for the cause.

Interim Wray did a good job deflecting the flack in his radio interview. Unfortunately for him and the board, with PDC at the helm of the STFC managers office, the shit storm will always go national. I hope IW and the board are up to the challenge;-)

I feel sorry for Connell getting subbed in the first half. That said, he's done fuck all so far, so maybe Di Canio has seen enough of him not to give a fuck about upsetting him?

Thinking about it, maybe Di Canio is now flexing his muscles as a manager and is sending out a clear message to the squad that he will be ruthless with anyone who isn't up to scratch and that he isn't afraid to humiliate inferior/lazy players and his detractors?

It's easy to write PDC off as a nutjob etc because of his past form in the game, but if we had a run-of-the-mill manager and a similar situation had arisen, would we be writing him off or congatulating him for standing up to a lazy mother-fucker with the attitude of a work experience girl with PMT?

I agree with those who said that Southampton were different class tonight. Our shortcomings sometimes allowed them to take the piss, but they always had several more gears to shift up to and they made us look like an embarrassing pub side at times.

We aint that bad though. A sometimes dodgy work in progress we may be, but this is division 4 for fucks sake. When we get settled, we'll make steady progress.

unfortunatly i appears that way.

He's been like that his whole career though.

fuck knows why we signed him, another panic buy shit striker who cant score...

IF that was true, and its far from certain from the video, then where would that leave us and PDC?

Up shit creek without a paddle.

If anyone can conclude anything from the latter half of that video, they've got x-ray vision.

You can't really see a thing once the steward gets in the way. Without knowing who was saying what at first either, who knows who's in the wrong? If this sort of thing really does happen day in day out on the training ground, it's just a shame and horribly unprofessional from all concerned that it happened in front of the cameras.

Sky are loving it. Their interview before kick off with Jeremy Wray before kick off was full of questions trying to get him to express dissatisfaction with Di Canio's start - looking for a golden quote. Well, they got their story in the end.

All in all, it makes a mockery of Di Canio's policy of building team unity and having everyone pull in the same direction. I feel as sick of this as in March to be honest.

I've corrected this for you.  :D

Not at all.  This re-inforces his opinion and the fact that he wont tolerate crap from his players (and a lazy one in Clarke)

No, that was just plain stupid.

Why? If my boss punched me he's be out for gross misconduct.

edit: Not saying a punch was thrown by the way..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LzTW7NqY2Y

Start getting warmed up Zippy!

I actually was thinking about this last night.

Would it really be so bad?

I see the Witch hunt begins from the Anti Di Canio brigade but that video proves jack shit. There's absolutely no way whether you can tell if a punch was thrown or not.

Gary Rose did tweet that Clarke looked to be the one very much in the wrong last night but we'll have to wait & see what comes out.

The best thing that can happen now is for the club to pull all parties together and get a quick resolution because the longer it goes on, the more it's going to unsettle & distract the team & the fans, not to mention giving the anti Di Canio Brigade more ammunition to speculate bollocks and put 2 + 2 together and get 5.

Not necessarily  :hmmm:

Don't shoot the messenger but email from my old man who has been a season ticket holder in the DRS and is generally pretty reliable with his feedback.

'Utter shambles both in the first half (i nearly left) and after the game apparently. The second half display does not hide the fact that PdC doesn't have a clue of managing, motivation, tactics, player recruitment, team selection and substitutions. Must get rid of otherwise we are doomed'

Have watched it a few times on tv and it just looks like fucking handbags, shit like that goes on all the time on the training ground.

But not normally shown on TV.

I think PdC was right in his reactions, Clarke was very unprofessional when told to get off the pitch, so PdC tried to make him go to the changing rooms to have it out in private and not in public.

That said.......Clarke was very out of order and should be fined hugely or shown the door, no excuses from him, PdC should just say a public apology for causing a smal amount of humiliation to the club, yes it is small, we are a small club now, the media were only there to see if PdC would do something like this, and he obliged, unwittingly, but he is always and has always been a bit of a loose cannon.

Both fucking apologise and get over it, and Clarke, if you cant get over it get the fuck out of our club.

I know virtually no one will agree with me but thats how I feel, petty handbags at 10 paces, thats all, but it should not have happened on the pitch, which was almost entirely Clarkes fault for not leaving the pitch when asked to by PdC.

Actually I agree with you. Good post.

slow motion, personally i don't know what to think.
It should of never happened, simple as that. Disgrace.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLv4onfFks4

28 - 30 secs in. pause it.

Really looks as if a punch is thrown but not from PDC but from the person to the far right  :hmmm:

The actual spat came from a bust up between Clarke and Donatelli so I would imagine it could well be him, all I see is handbags, punches never seem to connect and I doubt we will ever find out if they did our not anyway.

There is no point in over analysing this.

It happened. We move on and hopefully so do di Canio and Clarke.

Paolo, it's Paolo.  At least believe in that.

At 0:26 in that clip you see what I assume is the fitness coach come in on the right hand side, he has his hand up and clenches it into a fist and puts it right next to Clarke's face, but doesn't throw a punch.

It looks like the bust up wasn't between Di canio and Clarke. The fitness coach telling Clarke he will be running the following day looks what pissed Clarke off. I've only seen him vs the scum and he worked hard and ran his socks off that day.

In the tunnel Clarke is looking at Di Canio most of the time though.

There's some audio on this clip as they go down.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16059766

You can hear Di Canio saying "come with me" and Clarke saying "Gaffer, don't pull me".

Agree fully with this, Di Canio is inexperienced and will make mistakes as it's all apart of the learning curve. Clarke is in the wrong here in my opinion. All players must respect the management staff. It's basic rules. I've had it at all the clubs i've been at in the Hellenic league. You have your spats with the manager but it's forgotten about by the time you leave the changing room.

I know everybody reacts differently to these situations but Clarke needs to pick his dummy up.

The more I see that clip the more I'm inclined to agree with Muffin Man - something of nothing. If the parties involved have got any sense they'll talk it through with Jeremy Wray today and then put it behind them.

Well said Muffin Man - some people are just wanting an excuse to say "I told you so" re Di Canio.

Indeed fucking handbags and Clarke needs a dressing down for his attitude.

No player should be allowed to storm off like that but at the end of the day fuck all happened and I would imagine both Clarke and Di Canio are closer as a result.

Having watched it on the BBC it shows a different angle and I think PDC was acting as peace maker.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14731158.stm

That BBC clip seems to clear Di Canio of any wrongdoing... on the pitch at least, who knows whether he gave him a few left hooks down the tunnel!

One of the front page rotating headlines on yahoo.co.uk with accompanying photo!

From Gary Rose at the Adver:

Yeah seems that way, in the beginning anyway. Clarke raring up because he was told he had to do running training again the following day.

Oh dear, this really is a mess.

Having watched the Video again it does seem that Clarke is in the wrong and PDC has done his best to try and defuse the situation. Probably best that we bin the striker if he is going to cause unrest.

Not sure how Donatelli has squirmed his way out of this mess, he started it all by crossing the pitch at the final whistle and confronting Clarke - he should have saved his bollocking until the dressing room, just as Clarke should have saved his reaction for the dressing room. And Clarke isn't the first player to complain about being 'knackered'... so some wider issues going on here that need addressing, regardless of whether or not you think Clarke was right or wrong.

To a man, they've all let themselves down - not for having a go at each other but for doing it pitchside - unforgivable and quite frankly, embarrassing.

The whole things a mess to be honest and i fear how this will effect the club, the fans & the team going forward.  Surely this could open the door to more player revolt? Something doesn't seem right again this season 

it could, and should bring everyone together, create a siege mentality. I'm not sure if it will.

An undercurrent of bad vibes though so far this season, but that could just be because we're losing. Win a few games and problems take care of themselves.

Nothing to add about the Clarke/di Canio situation, but neither the player or the manager should be bigger than the club so for that reason I wish they would stop playing that bloody Italian music at the start of a game.

Am I missing something here? I hope he does go after that the petulant fucking cunt! Swearing at the coach because he dare have the gaul to tell a professional footballer he'll be running the day after the match? The same professional that probably got a huge signing on fee from us in lieu of his club getting a fee for him.

Yeah the coach shouldn't have gone over to him at the final whistle but I think they're all fucked off with his attitude. It seems to me that they put a huge amount of work into bringing him here and don't feel like they're being repaid in attitude and effort. I've had an issue with his attitude myself over the last few games, if a pass to him isn't pin point he just throws his hands up and moans; he never just gets his head down and tries to reclaim possession. I also didn't like the way he stropped off at Shrewsbury when he was subbed, head down all the way never once looking at us fans who were clapping the non scoring jizz sniffer.....................i feel better now

Quite right. Wasn't there but what the hell was he playing at.

This > we're only perpetuating the circus.

I bet the producer at SSN was creaming his pants when he heard there was footage of PDC in a little scrap with a player.

Would they have cared if it had of been Hart, Wilson, Malpas, etc?  Not much

This is only a story because PDC is involved.

How many goals has clark scored so far?

You can see from the BBC highlights who was at fault. Get rid now.

Twater
 
STGary_Rose Gary Rose
Unsurprisingly, Clarke did not train with Swindon today.
2 hours ago

This is what he wanted wasnt it, his legs were tierd, hell be ok in the morning.

Yep. If you look at the start he is grabbing PDC's kidney area

It's all handbags.  Clarke just needs to apologise, shake hands and move on.

Not reading much into Gary Rose's comment about him being "sacked" as think the board must've put together a decent package to get him to sign in the first place so doubt they want to jeopardise that so quickly.   

It's all fucking handbags at dawn. My only fear as a result of this is that the mongs will give Clarke a whole load of shit and he really won't want to play for us. 

Gary Rose... "Suggestions of Clarke being sacked denied by the club, but confirmation that he was not at training today"

Ha ha. I think it was Gary who first suggested it on twitter! Same old Adver.

This happens all the time in football. Only difference being that this was caught on camera. Move on.

Why would the fans have a go a Clarke he wasn't blame for the incident admittedly it could have been handled better but i guess that's the way some things go. 

I don't blame Di Canio either you can clearly see he was trying to remedy the situation so what did really happen at STFC last night to rile Clarke so much?  My guess is we'll never know and it'll be brushed under the carpet and the club will move on

I must say that I was expecting far worse.

Di Canio clearly trys to diffuse the situation pitchside. We don't know what happened in the tunnel.

Sunrise/sunset.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14731158.stm

BBC video of the incident.

So this is a player who we really bust a gut for who five minutes later we decide is a petulant disgrace who might not play for us again? Someone, somewhere clearly hasn't done much research have they...

Our view on Leon Clarke following last night...

http://thewashbag.com/2011/08/31/leon-clarke-has-got-to-go/

http://vimeo.com/4819323

I think the coach has got a lot to answer for, there is a time and a place to talk about fitness regimes, and it is not running on the pitch to meet the player straight after a game. I have a certain sympathy with Clarke, well up to the point when the histrionics start...

That's where I was headed :)

If any manager is well placed to forgive clarke and move on then it's Di Canio - a man who was granted an awful lot of leeway by the footballing world.

Feel for clarke in that he's being made the scapegoat for an incident where the manager/fitness coach must take their portion of the blame.

Lets hope both of them are man enough to shake hands and get on.
Two home matches now,so lets start with a win on Saturday and forget about it.

Clarke being made the scapegoat?! I take it you didn't see SSN last night? Or read any of the articles written by the natinoal media, which all ran with headlines containing one name only, and it wasn't Leon Clarke.

He may be receiving a lot of blame here, and perhaps the fitness coach has more to answer for than has been suggested (I didn't see taht incident), but if anything I think too much blame has been attached to Di Canio.

Doesn't seem that this is going to happen according to Gary Rose.

http://twitter.com/#!/STGary_Rose

'Reliably informed that Clarke has no future at Town, still waiting for official comment though'

Oh well.

Even if PDC did forgive him, I suppose the reaction of the fans would have to be taken into consideration. Can't imagine he'd get the warmest of receptions from the Town End if he was in the squad on Saturday.

I completely agree, that wasn't the thing to do at all and I'm in no way defending the start of the incident. However that reaction whilst walking off the pitch is bad enough.........to then do the whole don't push me gaffer thing is farcical. It's the complete lack of respect for authority, if that's how he reacts to a coach and then completely rejects his boss.....it's a worry.

His attitude to my mind has been generally poor and let's be honest with Paolo being so highly charged and intent on good player attitude and respect etc...........can you really see them moving forwards and forming a brilliant working relationship and all of it not effecting the team? I wonder what the coaching staff have been like in training today and what the players have made of Leon not being there?

I think most have realised, or will realise, that it's all a load of bollocks. Don't think the reaction would be too bad, maybe the first few mins but nothing he couldn't handle.

Disappointed if this turns out to be correct.

Di Canio isnt going to forgive Clarke is he?

He doesnt give players second chances. Once he doesnt like - thats it.

Hopefully theyve sorted it out today.

Lots of pressure on everyone after all the defeats.

In my mind, the fitness coach is the fucker in the wrong here. Yes Clarke acted abit of a knob by swearing and pushing away Di Canio but lets for 1 minute put ourselves in Leon's boots.

He's just played 90 mins in a very hard game against tougher, fitter opponents and was probably feeling dejected about missed chances and then Donatelli comes marching over telling him that he'll be doing more running tomorrow. In my mind, this conversation could have waited till the changing room or the next morning when Leon has recovered.

In the tunnel is another matter though and Clarke needs to learn to respect his manager.

the saints fans enjoyed it ::)

Not a fan of paying a massive signing on fee then sacking him.
The fitness coach is to blame for this IMO

Absolutely, but listening to BBC Wilts on the way home from Longleat (good day out) the reporter (whose name I forget) suggested that Clarke had already complained about the fitness/training regime a few days ago. Seems like this could have been spill over from then.

Nobody has come out with any credit.

Lets hope he doesn't speak for the masses, as if all the players think like Clarke we are fucked if it isn't resolved.

surely we're not paying anyone massive signing-on fees are we?  please assure me we're not?

I thought the reputation of Italian fitness teams was that they could keep players going on well into their 30s, because of a sophisticated Wenger-style fitness and nutrition programme optimised for peak matchday performance.

Turns out, it's just lots of hard bastard running.

All players get a signing on fee of some sort I thought?

A guy at work said to me today "I see your managers up to his old tricks, beating up one of his own players!"

Its this sort of shite that makes me cross, just because we've got Di Canio as manager people immediately think that its him to blame. The media are loving it.

Don't talk to me about mongish workmates.

I know how a gynaecologist feels now, surrounded by cunts all day.

He must have had a hefty signing on fee to make up the difference in wages
Premier league to league two is a big wage drop

:D

the signing on fee is correct. If qpr wanted a fee for clarke we wouldn't have been able to buy him as our weekly wage offer was too low. However they kindly terminated his contract so we could give him a whacking signing on fee to offset a smaller weekly wage. Leon then completed his dream move to swindon and the rest is history!

Going out on loan - BBC website.

He won't be able to, he signed during this transfer window therefore can't play for another club until January.

We just need to find a daft team that like signing non-goal scoring shit strikers.

I hear there is a club in L2 that do this.....oh......

This

Didn't Flint sign for us then go on loan back to Alfreton in the same window?

If he goes, won't be that upset - not seen too much from him to make me think he'll be a massive loss, we've got enough cover up front. Hopefully Kerrouche and Magera will be a formidable partnership!!!

I take it we won't be loaning him to another League 2 club? Perhaps a Scottish Prem side, or maybe a League one club for which he'll score loads and loads a la Cureton.

I'm more annoyed about Manks going, then again we do have lots of decent right backs knocking around the club... oh, hang on.

Just another day at Swindon Town Football Club.

  :bye:

Must be different rules for the prem then, because Lukaku wasn't allowed to be loaned to Stoke after joining Chelsea.

He wasn't allowed to another prem team

Got to wonder if any club will want to take him on after the videos that have been all over the BBC website and SSN. If there's somebody willing to take him then it sounds like the best way forward right now

Surely he's damaged goods now, but most folk will probably think PDC is to blame.... probably go to Sarfend - and score a shed load.

Corriere Dello Sport have lapped up the story, although a few other features on this page caught my attention more... :D

[url width=734 height=1023]http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo177/archstanton1973/CDS.jpg[/url]

Is it STFC or do lots of clubs have petulant players who show such disregard for management and fans, ie Gurney, Cuthbert and now Clarke?

If Clarke didn't like running he shouldn't have signed for us as it is evident that this is taken seriously under this management team

Surely Clarke would of done a bit of recearch into the club and must of picked up on the fitness levels the management team are expecting. In the past hasn't it been an unwritten code that players didn't train the day after a match ? I always thought they get the day off unless they had played really shit. Is doing double training sessions six days a week really necessary ?

Sadly, I expect we offered Clarke more money than anyone else (or were the only offer).  I imagine his research only went that far.

Probably right, and yes very sad.

Ha ha, when looking at the video, the sound track was "lets get ready to rumble ....."

Cuthbert? What did he do?